WildWand

What it does

The “Urban Biotopes” project aims to create habitats for wildlife in modern architecture. The “WildWand” integrates safe and species-appropriate breeding grounds for various animal species such as birds, bats, hedgehogs and wild bees into building facades.

Your inspiration

Habitats for nature, i.e. for plants and animals, are dwindling more and more in modern cities. Bees, flowers, birds, hedgehogs and bats play a very important role in our ecosystem. The rapidly growing red list of threatened species showed me that we urgently need to promote species conservation in urban areas. Therefore, we should definitely better integrate nature into modern cityscapes. Especially in architecture and the design of public areas, buildings and gardens, there are many opportunities to create sanctuaries, nesting and feeding opportunities and thus habitats for animals and plants.

How it works

As a facade system, the “WildWand” can be planned by architects as a curtain wall when constructing new buildings or retrofitted to existing buildings. It can be individually designed by combining different elements. Each animal element consists of a weather-resistant outer part made of Corian and an Species-specific designed inner part made of wood-concrete, which serves as a safe shelter for wild animals. This allows urban planners, companies and homeowners to effectively promote species conservation, while the “WildWand” adds a visual highlight to the architecture and blends in with modern architecture. In this way, habitats can be created for endangered building-breeding animals. The placement of the various elements should be planned individually depending on the surroundings and the animals potentially living there. To this purpose, I have created fact sheets with all the important characteristics of starlings, swifts, bats, wild bees and hedgehogs.

Design process

Starting with the basic features: the species-specific inner part and the base that connects the element to the substructure, the shape of the elements became more and more precise. When designing the inner parts, I took all the needs and requirements of the various animals into account and compiled them. These include: Shaping requirements: - Shape of the entrance hole / entrance - Predator protection - Rain protection Positioning requirements: - Height - Orientation, e.g. east side Dimensions, inside ( length × width × height ): - Size of the nest box - Size of the entrance hole Process requirements: - Cleaning - Monitoring - Replacement - Repair When designing the outer parts, i.e. the face of the „WildWand“, I aimed to create a sleek, futuristic design. The various elements should be able to be viewed as a harmonious whole in every possible constellation and combination, therefore I added the flat elements to the system. They form the link between the animal elements. All elements can be freely combined with each other in a standardized grid, starting with the smallest, the bee element with 60*60cm, the grid can always be enlarged and extended.

How it is different

The "WildWand“ is the first standardized system that integrates nesting boxes into the facade in a space-efficient way while visually enhancing the building exterior. In addition to classic nesting boxes made of wood or wood-concrete, which can often be hung from trees or attached to facades afterwards, there is only one innovative solution that integrates nesting aids for building-breeding species such as bats and various bird species into the building facade. These nest boxes made of wood-concrete can be inserted into the thermal insulation and then covered with plaster. However, there is not a single solution for other types of facades such as ventilated curtain walls, which are increasingly being used in modern architecture and especially in larger buildings. The “WildWand” also enables flexible and simple repositioning of the elements if they are not accepted by the animals thanks to its modular grid and quick installation.

Future plans

The “WildWand” is to be further expanded in the future. Suitable species-specific animal elements can be designed for all facade-breeding animal species. The more elements the system contains, the better and more effectively it can protect and permanently secure species diversity and biodiversity in the urban environment. With the help of plant elements, climbing plants can colonize the facade and thus create entire ecosystems on the facades of buildings, providing a habitat and food source for many insects, birds and other animals. Information elements could promote acceptance, understanding and even enthusiasm for animal neighbors.

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